At all levels of participation, American football is one of the highest grossing sports in the world. From the youth to the professional adult level, billions of dollars of revenue are generated annually for the play of America's biggest sport. American football is a high-grossing business that employs millions of participants across the United States, in Canada and, with a growing presence in Europe.
Over the last few years, concern about irreversible head injuries have come into focus. Also of concern are injuries to bones and joints due to high velocity collisions. Such concerns have threatened to derail participation at the youth level at the least. High schools and colleges, too, are currently seeking opportunities to significantly reduce the trauma that their athletes experience as a result of the high speed and high force collisions between players.
Football practices have been altered across all age groups. Head trauma related protocols have been initiated. Enforcement of these protocols has been mandated through state laws and by state sports' associations. Technology has been advanced in order to make players safer. In spite of all these efforts, head-related injuries continue and concerns, especially parental concerns, continue to rise.
Many alternatives and ideas to make American football safer have been proposed. In response to concerns about the injurious nature of football, some parents have steered their children to flag football as an alternative. Little technological advancement of non-collision based football has occurred, e.g., flag football has remained unchanged almost since its inception.
What is needed therefore is an alternative to strictly collision-based football that takes into account parental concerns of football players at the youth level. At the least, the technological advancement of football at the youth level is an important addition that, heretofore, has been ill considered by the prior art.